Monday, March 30, 2015

Just about every crowdfunding campaign I've seen has included some form of this refrain: Even if you can't afford to donate, helping spread the word is a great form of support. It's true. You may have seen my post last week about my funding campaign to publish the children's book Mammoth is Mopey, a collaboration with my wife, Jennie. And if you follow me on Twitter, you've most certainly seen me mention it a few (dozen) times. So, if you're sympathetic with the mission of the book - to put cool, whimsical, modern versions of prehistoric animals in the hands of young potential scientists and artists, I hope you'll consider sending out a tweet, pin, Facebook link, or any other form of social media post to help us hit our goal.

To sweeten the deal beyond words of appreciation, we've decided to hold a contest. If you post about Mammoth is Mopey on social media, you have the chance win any tee shirt of your choice from my Redbubble shop. The rules are simple: Between now and Sunday, April 5, make a public post on a social media network. In the comments below, include a link to your post. Next Monday, I'll use the random number generator at Random.org to choose a winner and make the announcement. If you've already shared a link to Mammoth is Mopey, that's okay - share it again over the next week, and comment below!

If we keep up at the rate we've been going, we should fund fully during the last week of the campaign. But that's not guaranteed, and I'd love to wrap up before that. Every time we hit a 10% milestone, I reveal another character from the book. I'd love to knock five or six this week, and your shares can help. Here's the progress so far.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Late update: David covered this one before! Be sure to read his take. I try not to go over the same ground, but mistakes happen.

The 1970s are a particularly rich source of popular/children's dinosaur books, fuelled no doubt by the Dinosaur Renaissance, the fantastically cheesy B-movies of the time (the seminal example When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth appeared in 1970), or some combination thereupon. I Can Read About Dinosaurs (1972, illustrated by Judith Fringuello) is very typical of kids' books of the era; although the restorations are still old-fashioned in outlook, they're a lot more lively than they might have been back in the Zallinger days. It also features a very cool, nicely composed cover. Just check out those heroically posed Sexy Rexies, nonplussed by angry mountains and demonic, wraith-like pterosaurs. Aw yeah.

In ichno-news, Lisa Buckley has written a great post about a new set of lower Cretaceous trackways: ornithopod, non-avian theropod, and a newly described avian ichnotaxon, Paxavipes babcockensis. The bird tracks are notable, Buckley writes, for their unique orientation of toes, which reminds her of our extant Killdeer. Also check out the paper in Cretaceous Research.

Hațeg Island continues to produce oddballs: this time, evidence of a new short-necked azhdarchid. Mark Witton discussed the research at his blog, while teasing that a complimentary publication relevant to Cretaceous pterosaur evolution is on its way. Nab the PDF here.

A new Pachyrhinosaurus bonebed has been discovered in the Upper Cretaceous Wapiti Formation. As the abstract says though, there's more here than the title of the paper suggests. "About 88% of vertebrate remains are ceratopsian, and dromaeosaurid, hadrosaurid, troodontid, and tyrannosaurid remains have also been identified." It's also notable for being the farthest-inland bonebed yet discovered, at almost 300 miles (450 km) away from the coastline of the ancient sea.

In other bonebed news and other Triassic news, squeaking in just as I wrap this post up, a new Triassic species of Metoposaurus, M. algarvensis, has been described in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology by Steve Brusatte and team. Coming from a new Portugese bonebed, this monstrous temnospondyl offers up new details of skull anatomy that will assist in further phylogenetic work on the metoposaurids. And the reconstructions released with the news are terrific, too. Read more at Live Science.

Some wonderful news from Colombia: the Blue-Bearded Helmetcrest (Oxypogon cyanolaemus), thought extinct, has been rediscovered. Its ultimate survival, however, is anything but guaranteed, as its habitat is threatened by livestock grazing and fires set for agricultural purposes.

Palaeoart Pick

It's not every day that an ancient crocodylomorph makes international news, but props to Zanno, Drymala, and team for achieving such coverage for The Carolina Butcher. One of the reasons for this must be the stunning restoration included in the press release. The work of one Jorge Gonzales, this fantastic piece is one more example of how important good palaeoart is. I've said it before, and I'll probably never stop: There is no palaeontology outreach without palaeoart.

Monday, March 23, 2015

I am excited to announce that the children's book Mammoth is Mopey, written by my wife Jennie and me and featuring 26 of my original illustrations, is close to publication! It has been a labor of love for the last few years, and I'm on pins and needles as we work on the crucial last step. What's the book about? This Venn diagram is a good place to start.

At its heart, Mammoth is Mopey is simply a fun celebration of prehistoric life. Written as an alphabet book, it features 26 animals spanning 500 million years of Earth history. Some are familiar - Ankylosaurus, Velociraptor, and the title character for example. But most of them are not household names, from Permian synapsids to recently discovered non-avian dinosaurs to a terror bird and a temnospondyl. They're whimsical and cartoony, but they are thoroughly contemporary, with the kinds of integumentary variety and other anatomical details we are accustomed to nowadays, and that we wish the mainstream pop culture would embrace more quickly. Emily Willoughby wrote eloquently on this angle of the book in a wonderful post at her Things With Feathers tumblog. Mark Witton also gave it a big thumbs up at his blog.

Not that I'm seriously suggesting therapsids were either bipedal or nattily dressed...

...or that ankylosaurs fancied painting the occasional still-life.

Another reason for the book is to provide a fun way for adults and children to learn about these amazing animals together. Each spread includes information about when and where each critter lived, and pronunciations produced with help from Mike Keesey. Big and small readers can learn the names together and talk about the emotions and actions of the animals.

Our funding campaign via Indiegogo has two goals. First, we want to print an initial run of 1,000 copies of the book. We're not skimping on it. After much deliberation about materials, we settled on doing a solid casebound hardcover format with a thick, uncoated interior paper stock. It will be a sturdy little book.

Second, we are raising money to fund an art exhibition to be held this June at Wonderlab. As part of their larger "Science A-Z" programming over the summer, prints of every one of the book's animals will be displayed on their gallery wall. Wonderlab will also have signed copies of Mammoth is Mopey for sale in their gift shop, provided we can fund it.

We would greatly appreciate any support, and to sweeten the deal, we have all sorts of excellent perks for people who donate to the campaign. Physical copies of the book come with donations as low as $15, and there are 1" buttons, character prints, posters, and even custom illustration commissions at higher level. Want an illustration of your daughter riding a Postosuchus or you giving Futalognkosaurus a hug? I'll do it! Of course, tweets and Facebook shares are all appreciated as well, if you're not able to donate.

Please check out our campaign page and learn more about the book at MammothIsMopey.com, which will be dedicated to the book and its supplemental content in the eventuality that the campaign is successful!

Monday, March 9, 2015

After our sojourn to the 1960s in the last post, I'm afraid it's back to 1990 for this one, with all of the Sibbick rip-offs that that tends to entail. Part of the BBC Fact Finders series (other titles included Egypt, Weather, Seashore and Nutkins on Pets, which presumably featured stalwart children's TV presenter Terry Nutkins, or else has a very baffling title), Dinosaurs is a very typical book of the post-Normanpedia, pre-Jurassic Park era (the Sibbickian?). Greg Paul-type dinosaurs haven't yet taken over here, and the illustrators freely cobble together copies of different artists' work into the same piece, which leads to some wonderful juxtapositions. And a funky-looking Triceratops on the cover.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

In December, I was commissioned to create a pixel art illustration for an ad campaign. It was a good fit for me, as I've long wanted to delve into the style. It fits in well with my love of 8- and 16-bit video games and chip music. It was inevitable that I would also bring my love of dinosaurs into the fold. I began experimenting with pixel saurians, trying different methods, various scales at which to draw my subjects, and with that, different levels of detail. I wrote about the first few in a December post, and then announced the series I'd whipped up. Fittingly, these posts sandwiched my interview with the Saurian development team. Digital dinosaurs of retro and modern realms coexisting side by side.

The 13 Dinosprites have now all been shared, so I'd like to wrap them all up in this post. This was an experimental series in which I explored another way to distill saurian forms to bare essentials, but it's definitely stoked my interest in trying other ways to use pixel art dinosaurs in projects. They beg to be animated. And I can imagine some of the educational palaeontology websites I've been kicking around my head for years being brought to life with pixel art.

But wait, there's more! All of the Dinosprites are available on merchandise in my on-line store, anything from mugs to pillows to tees and hoodies.